NIGHTMARE SPAWN
There is only one official version of this very popular figure sculpted by Ehren Bienert.
Images are courtesy of Ehren Bienert from his blog Brain Theft.
May 2007 Series 31 Original
Released as part of Series 31: Other Worlds in April 2007, it might as well be the fifth series of the Art of Spawn Collection and he be titled as Hellspawn i.015. All the figures in Series 31 are based on art found inside the comics.
The Nightmare Spawn figure is based on the art of Ben Templesmith found in page 6 of Hellspawn #15.
Art of Hellspawn Collection
This sub-collection group comprise of figures that are direct adaptation from or interpretation of the arts of Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith seen in Hellspawn and they include Hellspawn i001, Hellspawn i005, Hellspawn i011 (aka Raven Hellspawn 2), Raven Spawn (aka Hellspawn i007) and Nightmare Spawn (aka Hellspawn i015).
Why Nightmare Spawn? It is adapted from the final storyarc of Hellspawn titled Hellworld by Steve Niles. In this storyarc, Spawn embraced the Beast known as Hel, the former lover of Malebolgia and was presented a vision of hell on earth, a nightmare utopia of a victorious Hell with Spawn as the ruler. He managed to stave off several temptations but succumbed to rage when he was presented with Billy Kincaid, that is the image that led to the figure known as Nightmare Spawn.
The ‘nightmare’ however is multi-faceted rather than one-dimensional, the nightmare of a world burning, the nightmare of him turning into a devil,the nightmare of Wanda's rejection and finally returning alive from the nightmare of his life as a Hellspawn (image above from final issue of #16).
Despite his obvious nightmarish appearance, he is a very well received collectible figure and he regularly received a higher resale value compared to the rest of the cast in the same series.
Now, let's have a closer look at him from all angles:
The skull buckle with the uneven eye sockets...
